I thought I lost the ability to cry;
But only you could coax a tear from my eye.
I think I’m strong, at least I try.
But the more I see, the more my heart dies.
I try to read between the lines,
I wished you would tell me everything is fine.
I don’t know to laugh or cry,
At your honesty, that u were there to keep her eyes dry.
I bite my lips, I swallow my sighs.
I press on in silence, head held high.
I only have one wish as I turn thirty-nine,
That you keep our oath, as I have kept mine.
Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.

The older i am, the more ah lian i become. Went to get a third pair of ear holes pierced today. I wondered why and the only conclusion i arrived at was the older i am, the less i care about what people think of me. So that brings my inner lian to the surface. But who cares right? Love the third set of earrings on my ears! 🙂

I’ve recently had to fight over a few months with the claims director of an insurer to pay a valid claim to my client. The quibble the claims director had was over procedural matters and there was absolutely no doubt that the defaulting borrower owed money. In fact, the borrower already issued an confirmation of debt.

So even though the claim director agreed to pay the claim, he wanted some additional documents executed.

In the end, we had to get my global head to talk to the head at the insurance company to resolve the issue but it’s too late. I received instruction from the client to use them less in future.

I thus wonder if it’s worth it from the insurer’s point of view? Now you’re going to pay the claim but your client has decided you’re a pain in the ass and does not wish to work with you in future. You’ve lost both the battle and the war.

I also wonder if insurers remember why insurance started is because people decided to pool together to share risks and with risk comes claims. As an underwriter, if you had a clean loss record doesn’t mean you’re a good underwriter at all. It just means you were useless in sharing risk. And I’m not saying this because I’m a broker. I started my insurance career as an underwriter albeit in life insurance.

A good underwriter prices the risk correctly such that the risk pool he underwrites contributes a fair premium into the total pool to fund claims.

Reflections:
This is my second business trip to HK, which I always find ironic since it took 15 years of working life before work brought me to a country I enjoy visiting so much; and of which among my colleagues, I’m the only one who speaks Cantonese.

I know TST area better than I know Orchard Road. Which probably means that the rate of development in HK is slower than Singapore. I always find new things when I visit Orchard Rd say 4-5 times a year but I haven’t seen much changes in HK the last 5 years.

It was interesting during the Global Trade Review conference today when Singapore was brought up quite a few times as a comparison and highlighted as a competitor/threat to HK. (Comparisons were made in trade, corporate treasury and talent pool). I was reminded that there was a time when Singapore used to use HK as a benchmark in the finance sector but it’s been so long ago that I’ve forgotten about it. Singapore has really matured as a financial hub. It seems like we’re now benchmarking against the world while HK is benchmarking us.

A banker, who used to be my HK colleague’s boss in their previous company, commented to my colleague “how come my hair is so funky”. Indeed, work decorum in Singapore has changed a lot. I wouldn’t have dreamt of having purple and pink hair 15 years ago. In fact, people in banking would hardly have dyed their hair at all but no one cares now. We have come a long way in developing what’s our own acceptable norm.

I used to want to work in HK because I loved the vibrancy of the city. But its lights are dimmer now.

I used to say I wouldn’t want to go for an Australian WCS event cos I would rather save my leave for events in the US. So it was really on a whim that I signed up quite last minute to go for Swingsation. The primary factor was that I really wanted to make it out of Novice and felt I needed one more competition after Asia West Coast Swing Open to do it.

And so I did! The 4th place finish means I’m now in Intermediate. Yay! I didn’t jump for joy during awards but I did have a sense of satisfaction. Goal in attending Swingsation met!

Dance side, I also realised that because I don’t socialise much in Singapore in my attempt to balance family, bunnies, work and dance – Asia Open was pretty much spent getting to know the other local dancers in the scene – overseas events then is the opportunity to know some of the overseas dancers who often visit our shores but whom I didn’t get the chance to talk before.

The greatest take away from Swingsation was this to know some of the Malaysian WCS dancers. I found some very genuine, sincere and helpful people.

Anyway, I already know what I want to work on so time to further develop myself! 🙂